Eric Mack On-Line

If you have children, you have to ask yourself
if you are home educating them as well. OK, perhaps that is a misleading
statement (See disclaimer #1) but I do want you to think about your role
as a parent.

Our family home educates our 4 daughters ages 1 3/4, 3 3/4 and twins at
8 1/2. It has been a fun and stimulating experience thus far. Perhaps most
exciting is to see the two younger children learning so much by watching
their older siblings. We do not push our children, the 3 year old is learning
to read because she wants to be just like her big sisters. The youngest
pretends to read along. The older ones help with the teaching of their
younger siblings and in turn, learn effective communication skills.

As for family dynamics, I can think of no better way to bring and keep
our family close together than the experience that we have had homeschooling
our children. I am fortunate to be able to run my consulting practice from
home. I'm therefore able to be involved or at least aware of everything
that is going on. We are all becoming our own best friends and this strengthens
the family.

Now, I must make two disclaimers:

1. Homeschooling as an alternative to public or private school is not for
everyone. That does not mean that you cannot have a homeschooling mentality
as you approach every event and circumstance with your children as a learning
opportunity. It is my personal belief that EVERYONE who has children should
be homeschooling them regardless of whether they also choose to have them
attend a public, private or parochial school for 5 or 6 hours each day.

2. As the income producer in our family, it should be noted that my wife
does most all of the work on the formal classroom training. I cannot take
credit for the many hours of classroom and textbook time that she invests
with our children. I think that in most homeschooling families you will
find this to be true.

I would welcome your comments or questions. We are only in our 4th year
of homsechooling and perhaps there are some of you out there who have already
graduated your children. I'd love to hear from you.